Mistletoe & Mayhem. Lori Wilde

warm, just as it had been in Hank Jefferson’s store, and it made her feel that he was inviting her to share in a private joke. For a moment, the two of them could have been alone in the room, and she was suddenly aware of how close they were sitting, close enough that she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to. And she did want to. More than that, she wanted him to touch her. The realization started a churning heat deep in her center.

      Quickly she broke off eye contact with Shane, turning her attention back to the sheriff and forcing herself to listen to what he was saying.

      “No, I’m sure she’s not going to hang herself.”

      When Sheriff Dillon winked at her, she managed a smile. Every muscle in her face felt stiff.

      “I can guarantee that she’ll be fine,” Dillon said. “She’ll be there shortly…. I don’t have any idea how a rumor like that got started.”

      Jodie heard Shane swallow a chuckle, but she didn’t look at him. Instead, she rose the moment that Dillon hung up the phone. “I’d better get back. I’m never late.”

      “You’ll remember what I said,” Dillon said as she reached the door.

      “Right. If Billy shows his face, you’ll be the first to know.” Jodie wanted in the worst way to run as she left the office. Only the thought that Shane Sullivan might look out the door and see her allowed her to keep her pace steady. And it wasn’t the first time he’d made her want to run away. Why? Frowning, she stepped out onto the sidewalk and started up the street. She certainly wasn’t afraid of him. But every time she was with him, he…stirred her up. In her whole life, she’d never before looked at a man and imagined him touching her. Nor had she ever before felt that kind of bubbling heat spreading outward, downward. Pressing a hand to her stomach, she glanced sideways and caught her reflection in a store window.

      She didn’t look any different than she had that morning. She was wearing her hair the same way. Running her hand through it, she watched it settle right back into place. Since she’d cut it off, it had developed a mind of its own. The winter coat was the same one she’d worn for the past five winters. So why did she feel so—

      A warning bell sounded in the back of her mind. Billy Rutherford had made her feel different, too.

      Billy had been all smoothness and polish. When she’d been with him, she’d felt special, noticed. Like Cinderella must have felt at the ball when Prince Charming had chosen her out of all the other women. Tightening her hands into fists, she jammed them in her pockets. She wasn’t going to be that foolish again.

      Not that Shane Sullivan was anything like Billy. Oh, he had a certain kind of charm all right—a surprising glint of humor in his eyes that hinted at…shared secrets?

      Jodie’s frown deepened as she turned and hurried toward the corner, quickening her pace even more once she rounded it. Whatever it was about Shane Sullivan, she had a hunch he’d never make a woman feel like she was Cinderella. No, he’d make a woman feel like…

      Suddenly an image filled her mind. She and Shane, wrapped around each other, with very few clothes on…and…and they weren’t even in a bed! Jodie felt an arrow of heat move through her, melting her insides. For a moment, she couldn’t feel her legs or her feet. She wasn’t sure she could take another step.

      “Jodie! Jodie, are you all right?”

      “I’m fine, Mindy Lou.” Saying the words helped, but her voice sounded funny. Breathless. She cleared her throat. “Really, I’m fine.”

      “You look funny. Maybe you should take the afternoon off,” Mindy Lou said as she raced down the library stairs.

      “No,” Jodie said.

      “I’ll fix you some tea….” Mindy Lou began.

      “No,” Jodie said again as she managed the first few steps. “I’m having a cappuccino.”

      “But…you never drink coffee,” Mindy Lou said.

      “I’m changing.”

      “AREN’T YOU GOING to say I told you so?” Dillon asked as Shane rose to close the door behind Jodie. “Rutherford bolted, just as you thought he would. And now he seems to be back in Castleton.”

      “You think he was the prowler at Rutherford House last night?” Shane asked.

      “His aunts have a prowler the same night that their nephew jumps bail. He’s my top suspect.”

      “The question is, did he get what he came for?”

      Quickly, Dillon filled Shane in on everything Jodie had told him. “She says the man wasn’t carrying anything. He needed both hands to climb down the tree.”

      “So they ran him off with fireplace pokers,” Shane said with a grin. “He’s lucky she didn’t have a gun.”

      “Well, let’s hope his luck has run out. I’d still like to know how you figured he’d show up here.”

      “When you’ve been hunting men for as long as I have, you get to know how they think. Castleton’s a summer place he used to visit as a child. After a twenty-year absence, he suddenly pays a month-long visit to his aunts just before the sky falls on his head. It’s a pretty big clue.”

      “This sure puts a hole in your theory that Jodie Freemont is helping him out.”

      “How do you figure that?”

      “He wouldn’t have to break in if she was.”

      “Maybe not.” Shane glanced out the window just as Jodie came into view. When he found himself wanting to smile, he quickly stifled the urge. The truth was he hadn’t quite made up his mind about Jodie Freemont. She was…different than he’d expected. She had imagination and an unexpected sense of humor. And then there was that passion that simmered just beneath the surface. He’d caught glimpses of it twice now in her eyes.

      He watched her pause to look in a store window, then suddenly turn and hurry to the corner. Perhaps it was all that cool reserve laced with the promise of heat. It was the kind of contrast that would draw a man. The thought of it tempting a piece of scum like Billy Rutherford made him frown.

      “You’re wrong about Jodie helping him hide the money,” Dillon said.

      Shane turned his attention back to the sheriff. “I’m not so sure. She’s smart enough to be putting on an act.”

      Dillon smiled. “Oh, she’s smart all right, smart enough to come here to check you out. She doesn’t buy your cover. She’s curious as to why you’re wandering around without a home to go to for Christmas. And she wants to know why a corporate executive would want to try his hand at carpentry. I told her it’s a midlife crisis. Is it?”

      “That’s what we agreed you’d say.”

      “I’m asking for myself, now. You own a big investigative firm, and Billy Rutherford is small potatoes compared to some of the men you’ve hunted. Why not send one of your operatives?”

      Shane studied the sheriff for a minute. Beneath the laid-back attitude there was a persistence and a shrewdness he admired. He decided to go with the truth. “I’ve been out of the field for a while, and I was feeling restless.” Empty was the word he’d come up with in the wee hours of the morning to describe the mix of emotions he’d been experiencing lately. But it was much less disturbing to define them as simple restlessness. “Don’t you ever miss it? Being in the field, I mean?”

      Dillon shrugged. “In a town like this there’s not much to miss. Anything exciting happens, I’m right in the thick of it.”

      The phone rang, and Dillon grinned. “And when my deputy is out, I get to double as my own receptionist during lunch hour. Never a dull moment.”

      While Dillon handled the call, Shane glanced out the window again, but Jodie had disappeared. Whether she was cooperating with Rutherford or not, he had a gut feeling that Ms.